Thinking and Nurturing Transnational Activism: Global Citizen Advocacy in Southeast Asia

3 DOMINIQUE CAOUETTE
Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies 2006 21 (2): 3-33

Thinking and Nurturing Transnational Activism:
Global Citizen Advocacy in Southeast Asia
DOMINIQUE CAOUETTE
ABSTRACT. In recent years, international nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and
transnational networks involved in knowledge creation have become key civil-society
actors in Southeast Asia. How and why has such form of transnational activism expanded
significantly in the region? The author suggests that this type of activism is a response
to socioeconomic and political processes associated with globalization, as well as a
consequence of the relative and limited political liberalization that has characterized
some Southeast Asian countries. The specific combination of these two factors is
peculiar to the region since contemporary transnational activism in Western Europe and
North America takes place within open democracies with well-established civil-society
organizations. Moreover, trade liberalization and other global economic processes have
not marked domestic dynamics as rapidly and suddenly as the economic boom of the
1980s and, eventually, the 1997 financial crisis did in certain Southeast Asian countries.
To explore this argument, the paper traces the genealogy and analyzes the objectives and
activities of four transnational activist organizations. Common to the four organizations
is the central place of discourse and knowledge production and its linkages to
mobilization, network building and constituency building, and a growing awareness that
they are confronted with common challenges and share common targets.
KEYWORDS. Transnational activism transnational networks ARENA TWN
Focus APRN
INTRODUCTION
In December 2005, Hong Kong hosted the Sixth Ministerial Conference
of the World Trade Organization (WTO), following previous ones in
Singapore (1996), Geneva (1998), Seattle (1999), Doha (2001), and
Cancun (2003). Beginning with Geneva, and especially the year after,
with the Battle of Seattle, civil-society parallel meetings and protests
were occasions for transnational movements and networks to gather
and act collectively to resist and protest decision-making processes
4 TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
deemed undemocratic and exclusionary (Bandy and Smith 2005;
Smith and Johnston 2002). For many participants, trade liberalization
as embodied in the WTO agenda constitutes a global challenge that
calls for cross-border collective action to shift the current neoliberal
economics in favor of social justice and equity (Clark 2003; Prokosh
and Raymond 2002).
In its bare form, transnational activismhas been defined as social
movements and other civil-society organizations and individuals
operating across state borders (Piper and Uhlin 2004, 4-5).
1
This
definition was further refined by della Porta and Tarrow (2005, 7) who
referred to transnational collectiveaction as the coordinated international
campaigns on the part of networks of activists against international
actors, other states, or international institutions.
Recent works on transnational collective actionnotably the
works of della Porta and Tarrow (2005), Tarrow (2005), and Risse-
Kappen (1995 and 2002)suggest that three variables explain the rise
and outcomes of contemporary transnational activism: the current
complex internationalization (growing density of international
institutions, regimes, and contacts among states officials and nonstate
actors), and multiplication of linkages between local, national, and
international issues [Tarrow 2005, 8]); the multilevel political
opportunities created by the interaction between complex
internationalization and domestic structures (i.e., institutional features
of the state, society, and state-society relations [Risse-Kappen 1995,
20]); and the emergence of a stratum of activists best described as rooted
cosmopolitans (a fluid, cosmopolitan, but rooted layer of activists and
advocates [Tarrow 2005, 34]).
Very seldom do transnational activists work exclusively at the
global level.
2
Instead, they tend to be rooted at local and national
levels, simultaneously engaging different levels of government
institutions. Today, these networks are led by activists engaged in
transnational activism after having been involved in local and national
advocacy. In fact, many have remained involved in national struggles,
arguing that advocacy and policy engagement at one level do not deter
activism at another level. Transnational activists are able to create
linkages and coalitions among various types of actors operating on
different levels (local, national, regional, international) in order to
respond to various political contexts, each offering a different range of
political opportunities.
It is nearly impossible to identify a single episode or a historic
birthmark for the emergence and accelerated growth of contemporary
transnational activism, although certain events acted as important
catalysts. While transnational social movements have been around for
a long time,
3
global mobilization of the 1990s, including the Zapatista
uprising in January 1994 and its call for transcontinental (and even,
intergalactic!) resistance to global neoliberalism and the Battle of
Seattle, have been particularly significant, highlighting the importance
of cross-border solidarity and collective action (Schulz 1998; Price
2003). Unsurprisingly, the study of transnational activism and its links
to globalization has become a thriving research area, both in international
relations and political sociology (Bandy and Smith 2004; della Porta
and Tarrow 2005; Khagram, Riker, and Sikkink 2002). Despite its
growing richness, the geographic coverage of this research domain has
remained largely confined to North America, Europe, and, to some
extent, Latin America (Risse 2002; Price 2003). Today, there are few
analyses tracing the genealogy and the influence on public policy of
such form of collective action in Southeast Asia (Piper and Uhlin
2004; Hewison 2001).
Yet, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and, increasingly, Indonesia
host various forms of transnational activist organizations. In fact, one
can observe that this tendency accelerated after the 1997 financial crisis
(Lize 2000; Loh 2004). Bangkok, Manila, and Jakarta have become
nodes of transnational activism, places that provide not only the
practical infrastructure required by transnational NGO networks, but
also a political climate that is not too hostile toward civil-society
activism (Piper and Ulhin 2004, 14).
4
A better and informed understanding of this modality of activism
in relation to the broad range of initiatives for social transformation in
Southeast Asia is now timely. This is especially true for international
development agencies that find themselves increasingly involved in
supporting this type of work, sometimes at the expense of local
community organizations and national NGOs and peoples
organizations. Another reason is to be able to understand how such
form of transnational collective action fits within the repertoire of
collective action in Southeast Asia, and how distinctive this form of
regional activist knowledge creation is compared to other regions of the
South, therefore building on the works of Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink
(1999) and Keck and Sikkink (1998).
In this article, I examine how and why transnational activism
expanded significantly in Southeast Asia. I suggest that this type of
activism is a response to socioeconomic and political processes
associated with globalization, as well as a consequence of the relative
and limited political liberalization that has characterized some Southeast
countries (Taylor 1996). As Loh and jendal (2005, 3) correctly note:
For although the Southeast Asian countries enjoyed unprecedented
high rates of economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s, and experienced
pluralization of their societies, nonetheless, the state authorities
continued to dominate over their societies. Kingsbury (2005, 416)
concurs, stating, almost regardless of the political model adoptedor
inventedin the region, some more traditional forms of authority
continue. Most notably, variations on patron-client relations continue
to dominate, running afoul of conventional statist notions of propriety
and political party, not to mention law and human rights.
Unsurprisingly, transnational activist organizations established
themselves in countries where relative political space existed, or at least
allowed, for global organizing. In some instances, transnational
organizing became a way to reach out to the state for further
democratization, somehow reminiscent of the boomerang model
developed by Keck and Sikkink (1998).
5
Such specific combination of these two factors is peculiar to the
region since contemporary transnational activism in Western Europe
and North America takes place in relative open democracies with well-
established civil-society organizations (see Tarrow 2005). Moreover,
trade liberalization and other global economic processes have not
marked domestic processes as rapidly and suddenly as the economic
boom of the 1980s and, eventually, the 1997 financial crisis did in
certain Southeast Asia countries. To explore this argument, I trace the
genealogy and analyze the objectives and activities of four transnational
activist organizationsthe Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives
(ARENA) now based in Seoul and Hong Kong but with a history
closely linked to Southeast Asia, Third World Network (TWN) based
in Penang, Focus on the Global South (Focus) based in Bangkok, and
the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) based in Manila. These
organizations represent a specific type of transnational activist
organization, one that intervenes in the realm of ideas, knowledge
production, and alternative discourse and acts primarily at the regional
and global levels. One could argue that they can be considered as think
tanks of civil society.
6
What makes them transnational is that the
knowledge they produce seeks to explain regional and global processes
and sustain collective action nationally and regionally to challenge not
only national states but the very processes represented by, for example,
the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), or the WTO. For instance, in
December 2005, at the WTO Ministerial Conference, various civil-
society organizations attended seminars that involved APRN and
marched under the APRN banner (Tujan 2006). Prior to the conference,
Focus produced easily accessible digital versatile discs that were used as
educational and consciousness-raising tools. It also was active in a
number of forums organized by the Hong Kong Peoples Alliance on
WTO. TWN, on the other hand, explained and described at length its
understanding of what was happening during the meeting (TWN
2006).
The four networks are connected to various international formations
around international development issues, global financial architecture,
food security, and global social justice. While they may be part of the
same international networks, they are recognized as distinct actors with
their own specificities. The four emerged at different times, and their
repertoire of collective action, their linkages with social movements,
and their interaction with government authorities vary. All four
networks had expanded since their formation, especially in the 1990s
at a time when Southeast Asia was becoming increasingly linked to the
global economy, and when various social sectors (labor, farmers,
migrant workers, women, and students) were increasingly organizing
and seeking alternative knowledge to the dominant neoliberal paradigm.
Before turning to the analysis of these four transnational
organizations, one should note that this comparative exercise is still
very much a work in progress. At this point, my focus is on understanding
the emergence and development of one type of transnational
organizationthose that may be considered as think tanksrather than
assessing its policy impact. As mentioned earlier, Southeast Asia, in
particular the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, host
various forms of transnational activist organizations (Loh 2004; Verma
2002). An overall picture of the region that would examine the range
of transnational social movements, international NGOs, and advocacy
networks remains to be developed.
7
For now, I examine these four
transnational organizations to understand their genealogy; the context
for their emergence and their expansion, highlighting how the
international and national contexts interplayed with specific thematics
chosen; and the various organizing modalities adopted by each
organization in their efforts to nurture and sustain regional and global
activism in Southeast Asia. In each case, the specific national context
in which these networks are established will be examined, revealing
how their specific location had to do with the relative political space
allowing for different forms of transnational activities.
TRANSNATIONAL ACTIVIST ORGANIZATIONS IN SOUTHEAST
ASIA: FOUR EXAMPLES
Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives
ARENA is the oldest transnational organization among the four
examined here. It was established in 1980 with its offices located
outside Southeast Asia (Hong Kong and Seoul). ARENA was set up
after an initial consultation that brought together progressive scientists
and church people who recognized at the time that it was not possible
to do critical research in mainstream universities (Nacpil-Manipon and
Escuetas 1998). ARENAs initial location in Hong Kong was not
fortuitous. In the early 1980s, many Asian countries were under
dictatorship or under semi-authoritarian rule that constrained the
possibility of setting up an organization such as ARENA.
Since its formation, ARENA has always had an Asia-wide approach,
striving to bring together intellectual activists to collaborate across
borders in producing research outputs and conceptual work that
would be relevant to social movements in Asia. In the process, ARENA
would build a community of concerned Asian scholars.
8
In fact, this
precise constituency is a key feature of the organization: ARENA is a
unique NGO because it has chosen to focus on the concerned Asian
scholars as its immediate constituency, believing that this sector can
play a vital role in the process of social transformation (ARENA n.d.
[a]).
9
It seeks to strengthen and sustain civil-society organizations by
providing knowledge and research that can be acted upon, recognizing
that these organizations play an important role in the process of social
transformation and the search for peace and social justice (ARENA
n.d. [a]). At the same time, its perception of its role has gradually
evolved as fellows perceptions evolved: Before, Asia was a rallying
point for anti-imperialist struggles. Now, it has shifted, as people want
to problematize what it means to be a new center for global economic
activities (Nacpil-Manipon and Escuetas 1998).
Until 1992, the network grew slowly, gathering about twenty
individuals into its Council of Fellows, who were left-wing academics;
many of them concerned with human rights and linked with various
social movements, including antidictatorship movements, like in the
Philippines. During its first decade, the Christian Conference of Asia
10
played a central role in supporting the network; fellows helped identify
other fellows and their works focused mostly on research and advocacy
while providing a certain degree of protection for those scholars living
in repressive contexts (Nacpil-Manipon and Escuetas 1998). At the
time, the Christian Conference of Asia was very active in the region
helping to set up various regional organizations, including the Asia
Monitor Resource Center, the Committee for Asian Women, the
Asian Human Rights Commission, and later on the Asian Migrant
Center (Cheong n.d., 12-15; Tadem 2005).
Following a five-year evaluation, ARENA became more formalized
in 1992-1993, with the Hong Kong secretariat, assuming greater
responsibilities as program coordinator. At the same time, ARENA
began expanding rapidly, with its number of fellows eventually reaching
sixty, an executive board established, and a greater inclusion and
participation of women fellows. In its early days, ARENA was quite an
old boys network loosely connected (Nacpil-Manipon 2005). After
1992, the number of women fellows increased, putting womens and
gender concerns on the agenda, thus enlarging the range of interests
from political economy to comparative studies of culture and
interdisciplinary approaches (Nacpil-Manipon 2005). As explained by
Eduardo Tadem, ARENAs coordinator between 1993 and 1997,
once ARENA had secured a more solid base of funding and was able
to launch various research initiatives, it built and enlarged a community
of fellows: We had our own research projects and we had to tap
different scholar-activists in different countries. That way, we were
getting them into ARENA by being involved in its projects. This is how
we were recruiting fellows (Tadem 2005). Beyond funding availability,
there was also a shared understanding that ARENA needed to develop
a genuine community of scholars since many of the ARENA members
had been handpicked by ARENAs first coordinator. The appointment
of women coordinators since 1989 was also a positive factor in terms
of establishing a greater gender balance and bringing on board a clearer
feminist perspective among some members.
11
At the moment, the ARENA Council of Fellows has seventy-nine
fellows based mostly in East, Southeast, and South Asia
12
but with a
small number based in Australia, the United States (US), and the
United Kingdom (UK). Its present goals reflect a broader set of
concerns such as:
1. Promotion of equity among social class, caste, ethnic
groups, and gender;
2. Strengthening of popular participation in public life as
against authoritarian centralization;
3. Prevention of marginalization of communities in the
face of incursion by modern influences;
4. I mprovement of the quality of life for Asias
underprivileged;
5. Nurturing of ecological consciousness;
6. Drawing upon aspects of indigenous knowledge systems
which enhance social emancipation; and
7. Articulation of new visions encompassing a holistic
worldview (ARENA n.d. [b]).
During the 1990s, ARENA also took on a more significant
collective life, holding regular congresses and developing three-year
plans of action. Its first coordinated plan was developed in its October
1996 congress held in Seoul. Attended by forty-two fellows, a three-
year plan, entitled Peoples Alliance in the Age of Globalisation:
Sustaining Equity, Ecology and Plurality, was approved and served as
the basis of programming. Beyond understanding and deconstructing
globalization and analyzing the impact of global trade and investment,
ARENA emphasized the need to contribute to the creation and
nurturing of peoples alliance, being built across borders by social
movements, grassroots organizations, NGOs and like-minded groups
(ARENA n.d. [b]). Its next three-year program (2000-2003), entitled
Reimagining Asia: Redefining Human Security and Alternative
Development: Movements and Alliances in the Twenty-First Century,
came in the wake of the financial crisis that hit many countries of the
region. The crisis fostered a greater sense of regional identity, and this
was reflected in the programs emphasis on the importance of acting
jointly:
The process of orienting the future and of reimagining Asia will also
entail the pooling together of Asian peoples political energies and
cultural imaginationbringing linkages between the local, national, and
the regionaltoward articulating and interpreting the experiences of
resistance and reconstruction. (ARENA 2000, 7)
For its three-year program for 2003-2006, the context was post-
September 11 and the US-led invasion of Iraq. Its Council of Fellows
met from March 28 to 31, just few days after the invasion on the theme
Hope Amidst Despair: Resistances and Alternatives to Hegemonies.
Its orientation echoed the specific context at the time:
The search for alternativesfor other possibilities that transform the
prevailing relations of power and usher in a more just and equitable
ordernecessarily confronts and addresses the violence that is engulfing
the world today. The violence of relentless hegemonic pursuits and
Empire building. The violence of militarism and wars of aggression. The
violence of deeply rooted structure of patriarchy. The violence of racism
and the culture of prejudice and intolerance. The violence of capitalist
exploitation of humanity and all the earths resources. (ARENA 2003)
Beyond its regular congresses and its publications (its primary
means of disseminating ideas), ARENA established what it called the
exchange-schools for alternative praxis. This was an opportunity to
blur the division between intellectuals and activists by providing an
educational environment for them to transgress their roles, and as a
platform and an information network for sharing of ideas and
resources among alternative education organizations and NGOs
(Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives ca. 1999, 4).
As a transnational activist network, ARENA has sought to provide
a critical space for intellectuals to meet and explore areas of thinking
that could inform collective action, nationally and regionally. This
sense of community and solidarity among ARENA fellows has been a
distinct feature of the network. As explained by Tadem in an interview
in 2005, this is probably a dimension that distinguishes ARENA from
other networks:
With ARENA, the research is not done in-house; the research is not done
by the members or [the] staff. The work is done by fellows because what
is more important for ARENA is to nurture, develop, and expand the
community, not put out publications . . . . It is just a means of achieving
the ultimate, the bigger goal of the community: developing, expanding,
nurturing, and making active such a community. (Tadem 2005)
When ARENA was first established, this type of critical intellectual
engagement was not tolerated, if not directly repressed, within traditional
academic circles and universities operating under authoritarian or
semi-authoritarian governments. In many ways, its emergence in the
1980s was a response to the limited space that existed for critical
discourse in Asian universities and the need to create a community
of scholars that could engage each other at the regional level and then
feedback such discourse within existing domestic grassroots
organizations. In an interview in 2005, Tadem recalls an activity
organized for ARENA fellows in Kerala:
In Kerala people who went there from different countries were really
excited about commonalities that they found, especially those who were
doing organic farming in Japan and Malaysia, alternative forestry initiatives
in Nepal, things like that. So my feeling is that the transnational aspect
was there, although it was never really articulated in that way, but
somehow being together in one conference and the similarities in your
experiences brought a very strong feeling of solidarity. That is the word
that I would use actuallysolidarity. It would always come out from these
regional gatherings of ARENA. (Tadem 2005)
With the growing density and importance of regional multilateral
organizations (such as ASEAN, APEC, and the Asian Development
Bank) and global economic and political processes (such as the Asian
crisis and the war against terrorism), ARENAs fellows increasingly
developed plans of action that embodied their goal to act collectively
at the regional level. The fellows are able to provide alternative analyses
and a critical standpoint on these developments. For example, in 2002
ARENA took an active stand on spearheading the Asian Peace Alliance
(APA). In its Inaugural Assembly, APA gathered over a hundred peace
activists from NGOs, social movements, and research institutes within
the region. ARENA became responsible for the coordination and
dissemination of the outcomes of the assembly and acted as its
secretariat.
13
ARENAs creation of a series of alternative schools for
activists is another instance in which it sought to contribute directly
to transnational activism. These alternative schools for activists are a
modality through which ARENA fellows expertise and knowledge are
shared and discussed transnationally with participants originating
from various countries in the region. Finally, ARENAs publications
taking a regional standpoint reflect this orientation toward creating
bridges and fostering space for exchange among intellectual activists.
Overall, ARENAs key contributions are to provide knowledge
and document existing transnational activist endeavors launched by
various social sectors, such as peasants, workers, women,
environmentalists, and migrants. A recent evaluation described
ARENAs early years:
In its earliest phase, ARENA flourishedwith minimal institutional
structures, minimal formal procedures, modest financial resources and
overhead costs. It maintained a small Secretariat in Hong Kong that
sought to nurture close links with social movements; provide solidarity for
the diverse struggles of various Asian peoples; provide a caring, nurturing
environment for a small, young core staff; provide a space for self-
reflection and creative thinking for both activists and concerned
intellectuals; and be a forum for the exchange of (what was somewhat
tautologically called) new alternatives in development theory and
practice. (Dias and Francisco 2004, 4)
At present, ARENA is in the process of reorganizing its institutional
structure after having to confront an institutional challenge. This is to
ensure continued relevance within the realm of transnational activism
in Asia. As noted in the evaluation: While it continues to widely enjoy
the prestige and respect of being one of the progressive regional
organizations in the Asia Pacific, it is not exactly a sought-after
organization in more activist-oriented regional coalitions and formations
that are working on alternatives to globalization(Dias and Francisco
2004, 6-7)
Third World Network (TWN)
The Third World Network (TWN) describes itself as an independent
nonprofit international network of organizations and individuals
involved in issues relating to development, the Third World and
North-South issues (Third World Network). Its international
secretariat based in Penang was established in 1984. Today, TWN has
offices in New Delhi, Montevideo, Geneva, and Accra, and affiliates in
many countries such as Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, Bangladesh,
Peru, Ethiopia, Mexico, South Africa, Senegal, and China (Third
World Network).
TWN has been regularly involved in multilateral processes such as
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the ASEAN
(Khor n.d.). Beyond participation in official and parallel summits,
TWN produces a wide range of publications: two magazines (Third
World Resurgenceand the bimonthly Third World Economics), books,
occasional briefing papers, and regular press releases. Its website has
become its primary portal for the dissemination of its materials and
analyses.
The history of TWN goes back to the late 1970s, when Martin
Khor, working at the time as research director with the Consumers
Association of Penang (CAP), proposed with other local and foreign
activists to establish such network.
14
Khor recalls in an interview,
CAP got in touch with other NGOs in Asia and other parts of the world,
and by 1984 we realized that many local problems had global roots.
Together with many of these other NGOs, we formed the Third World
Network in 1984, to link the local problems of communities in the South
to the global policy-making arenas. (Khor 2004)
The formation of TWN took place well before the newest wave of
transnational activism referred to as the antiglobalization movement.
As two program officers from Inter Pares, a Canadian social-justice
organization and one of the original supporters of TWN, noted: The
creation of TWN emerged from the process of taking a broader view at
consumerism, linking issues of public health, environment to North-
South relations. In fact, TWN emerged very much with the logic of the
non-aligned movement (Seabrooke and Gillespie 2005).
What distinguishes TWN from the three other organizations
examined here is its explicit commitment to work whenever possible
with government officials to affect public policies. Asked how TWN
can reconcile the two roles of being a civil-society activist network as
well as an advisor to Southern governments, Khor offers the following
response:
In the end, the social activist wants to achieve concrete results in terms of
better public policies and improvement in the lives of people . . . . Yes, the
government has invited us to take part in some consultative processes and
institutions in which we are able to put forward our views and inputs for
government policy making. Taking part in these processes helps us put
forward our perspectives more directly. But it does not compromise our
ability to have independent views and to remain critical. (Khor 2004)
Such approach challenges other networks that consider that
participation in government processes could reduce their level of
autonomy and independence. At one level, this methodology can be
seen as rooted in an analysis that emphasizes the need to influence
policy-making processes in the most effective possible waythat is, by
engaging directly with state and multilateral organization officials
(Hewison 2001, 225). Such orientation is also consistent with the
underlying analysis of TWN that divides the world into the North
(rich, industrialized) and South (poor, underdeveloped); at the same
time, it reflects Khors faith in a revitalized United Nations (Hewison
2001, 224-25). At another level, this approach might be a way to
enhance legitimacy within limited democratic space in Malaysia,
especially for domestic advocacy.
Malaysias political system, despite its democratic faade, has had
limited tolerance for direct political challenges and has been able to
control and, in some cases, effectively prevent the formation of
important local and national NGOs (Loh 2005; Trocki 1996; Verma
2002). In this context, the shift from local and transnational issues
appears to have been in part a response to limited domestic political
space, as well as to the growing and rapid integration of Malaysia into
the world economy.
TWNs success is linked to the capacity of its members to provide
alternative analysis and policy discourse on issues of the day for many
Third World activists and even government officials. With its long
tradition of analyses, having been established in the mid-1980s, TWN
became particularly prominent during the 1990s, especially with its
analyses on the Asian crisis and more recently with its analysis of WTO
processes, a time when social movements and activists in the region are
seeking critical perspectives.
A quick analysis of the various annual reports produced by TWN
between 1993 and 2003 revealed an amazing increase in its participation
in international and regional events (Third World Network 1993-
2003). TWNs participation in civil-society activities and government
and multilateral organizations meetings increased threefold from 50 in
1993 to 158 by 2003. Throughout the period, TWN consistently
participated in United Nations (UN)-sponsored processes, often at the
request of the agencies themselves (Third World Network Archive). At
the same time, TWN maintained its rhythm in terms of organizing civil-
society activities, spearheading a dozen of seminars and forums each
year, mostly in Asia (Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines)
and also in Ghana, Peru, Switzerland, and Norway. Today, its website
has become a key tool for disseminating its analyses. As reported in its
2003 Annual Report,
Overall, for the year 2003, the website recorded nearly 8.2 million hits,
with the month of November recording the highest number of hits at
826,056. In 2002, the website registered around 7.8 million hits, while
in 2001 it registered around 4.8 million hits. (Third World Network
1993-2003)
In fact, TWN, along with Focus on the Global South and Brazils
Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Rural
Workers Movement), is listed on TheGlobal Activists Manual as a key
reference in the global south movements directory, referring to it as
a platform for Southern interests in global meetings and institutions
(Prokosh and Raymond 2002, 295). After more than twenty years of
existence, TWN is a recognized network, both of multilateral and
national organizations as well as of civil-society groups and movements
in the areas of trade negotiations, especially WTO agreement on
agriculture, issues on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS),
biodiversity, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
15
Focus on the Global South (Focus)
Conceived between 1993 and 1994 by its first two codirectors, Kamal
Malhotra and Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South (hereafter
referred to as Focus) was officially established in Bangkok, Thailand, in
January 1995 (Malhotra and Bello 1999).
16
Its cofounders represent in
many ways archetypes of transnational activists. Bello, a Filipino
political economist, had lived in the US for years where he was very
active in the anti-Marcos dictatorship struggle and the international
Third World solidarity movement. He had also worked with a
Northern NGOthe Food First/ Institute for Food and Development
Policy. Malhotra, who is from India, had been involved for years with
an international NGOCommunity Aid Abroad-Oxfam Autralia)
and many other local NGOs. In conceiving Focus, the two shared a
common set of ideas:
Both were dissatisfied with the existing North-South division paradigm.
They were also skeptical about mainstream economic analysis, and the
economics-culture-politics methodology . . . They saw the need for linking
micro-macro perspectives in analyzing current situations . . . They both
saw the gap between activists who mobilize while holding incomplete or
simplistic analysis, and researchers and academics who have abilities to
make good analysis but lack the opportunities for action . . . They saw the
importance of East and Southeast Asia as a locale in light of its dynamic
economic, social, and political dimension in global development (Kaewhtep
1999, 45-46).
The choice of its name reflected a specific lens on how globalization
was affecting both the South and the North.
17
Early on, this
understanding of the international economy was presented: The
current globalization process is making the traditional definition of
South and North less clear-cut as there is a rapidly growing North in
the South, and at the same time a rapidly growing South in the North
(Focus ca. 1997). Moving away from a traditional North-South
perspective, Focus sought to propose a different conception: North
and South are increasingly redefined as concepts to distinguish between
those who are economically able to participate in and benefit from
globalized markets and those who are excluded and marginalized from
them (Focus ca. 1997). At the same time, Focus chose to give priority
to its work in developing countries, with a particular emphasis on the
Asia Pacific region (Focus ca. 1997).
The reputation, track records, and networks of its two directors
helped the organization take off the ground with a set of funding
agencies committing to support the initiative. Focus presented itself as
a place where thinker-activists within the Asia Pacific region can be
connected (Focus ca. 1997). Its main goals are as follows:
1. To strengthen the capacity of organizations of poor and
marginalized people in the South and those working on
their behalf to better analyze and understand the impact
of the globalization process on their daily life and
struggles;
2. To improve critical and provocative analysis of regional
and global socioeconomic trends and articulate
democratic, poverty-reducing, equitable, and sustainable
alternative that advance the interest of the poor and
marginalized peoples around the world, but especially
in the Asia Pacific region; and
3. To articulate, link, and develop greater coherence
between local community-based and national, regional
and global paradigm of change (Focus ca. 1997).
Early on, Focus sought to combine analyses on the workings and
the impact of regional and global economic processes with studies of
local resistance and initiatives. Its two main programspolicy-oriented
research and analysis on critical regional and global socioeconomic
issues (Global Paradigms Program), and documentation, analysis, and
dissemination of innovative civil society, grassroots, community-
based efforts in democratic, poverty-reducing and sustainable
development (Micro-Macro ParadigmProgram)reflected such orientation
(Kaewhtep 1999, 46).
Thailands relative political stability and democratic space, and the
possibility of being associated with the Chulalongkorn University
Social Research Institute (CUSRI) were two key factors why Focuss
head office was established in Bangkok (Kaewhtep 1999). Beginning
with a small staff of six in 1996, the Focus team expanded rapidly; in
1999, it already had close to twenty staff and about twenty-five by
2005. It has also opened two national offices, one in India and one in
the Philippines.
Within a few years, Focus became a key reference for civil-society
organizations not only in Southeast Asia but also within the broader
antiglobalization movement.
18
Two types of factors can explain such
success story. The first is endogenous and has to do with Focuss
capacities to build networks and strengthen linkages between and
among civil-society organizations at the global, national and local level
(Sta. Ana 1999, 6).
19
Through the years, Focus staff have been involved
not only in the production of research and policy analysis but also in
organizing civil-society networks within the region around a range of
issues such as food security, APEC, ASEAN, and Asia-Europe Meeting
(ASEM). They were also closely involved in many global processes, such
as the World Social Forum, anti-WTO coalitions such as Our World
Is Not for Sale and the peace movement.
20
Lastly, with Malhotra taking
a leave of absence in the late 1990 to join the UNDP, much of Focuss
clout revolves around the persona of Bello, its current director. Similar
to TWN with Khor, Bellos imprimatur is highly significant despite a
growing team of prolific and dedicated staff.
21
The second type of factors is exogenous. One was the Asian
financial crisis that began in Thailand in 1997 before spreading to the
region. Another was the growing importance of global economic
processes and regional and multilateral organizations. These
developments made Focuss analyses and staff highly in demand. As
one of the external evaluators noted: The Asian financial crisis and the
role of the international financial institutions have undoubtedly
become the burning issues of the day. The controversies revolving
around WTO and APEC, in different periods, have likewise occupied
center stage (Sta. Ana 1999, 24). The Asian crisis virtually catapulted
Focus at the center of critical discourse on the impact of economic
liberalization in Southeast Asia. However, the growing demand by
civil-society organizations for analyses on multilateral processes and
organizations such as APEC, WTO, and ASEM meant that other
research areas did not develop as much, including its proposed research
programs on the cultural responses to globalization and the micro-
macro connections.
In recent years, Focuss key areas of research and advocacy are the
issue of peace and the opposition to US foreign policy. In the wake of
the US-led invasion of Iraq, Focus played a central role in convening
a peace conference in Jakarta, which brought together representatives
and organizations from the larger peace movement that had emerged
prior to the invasion. The conference resulted in the creation of the
Jakarta Peace Consensus.
22
As it did for the Asian crisis and the anti-
WTO movement, Focuss capacities and skills for networking as well
as its capability to produce analyses and policy documents placed the
organization at the center of several transnational coalitions on the
issue of peace and antimilitarism. In August 2006, it helped organize
the International Civil Society and Parliamentary Peace Mission to
Lebanon in the context of the Israeli bombardment. The mission
included two parliamentarians, two farmers, two university professors,
and four activists, a journalist, and an interpreter from six countries
(India, Philippines, Spain, Norway, France, and Brazil). Once again, it
was Focuss international linkages, having been involved in organizing
a peace conference in 2004 in Beirut, and its capacity to react quickly
that allowed it to be an active player in this undertaking. These also
enabled Focus to rapidly disseminate the missions findings within its
networks abroad and in the Philippines (International Civil Society
and Parliamentary Peace Mission to Lebanon 2006).
Similar to the two previous cases, the role of certain individuals
with experience in both national organizing and international coalition
building was key to the emergence of this transnational organization.
However, two factors best explain the rapid expansion of the
organizations: the specific context of Southeast Asias rapid integration
into the world economy during the 1980s and 1990s, which became
especially obvious during and after the Asian crisis; and the relative
political liberalization and the increased density of civil-society
organizations looking for critical views and analyses.
23
This niche for
critical studies around which campaigns and mobilizations can be
organized, and Focuss growing involvement in global civil-society
processes, such as the World Social Forum, point to the importance
of taking advantage of openings in what was earlier referred to as
multilevel political opportunity structures.
Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN)
The creation of the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) in 1999 was
the product of a two-year process of consultation and exchanges of
materials among seventeen organizations from the Asia Pacific region
involved in research and documentation efforts (Asia Pacific Research
Network 1999, 1). Spearheaded by Manila-based research and databank
center, Ibon Foundation (especially its director, Antonio Tujan),
APRNs initial objectives were the following:
1. Develop the capacity of selected Asian NGOs in the
conduct of research;
2. Develop at least one NGO in each target Asian country
that can become a research-information provider by
introducing data banking and research as a general
service;
3. Develop common strategies in research information
work through sharing of experiences and raise the
general level capacities in research; and
4. Develop capacity and common research platform to
support social movements in their respective countries
in the emerging issues related to the WTO Millennium
round, the IMF and the APEC (Asia Pacific Research
Network 1999, 3).
24
Its first annual conference, organized around the theme of trade
liberalization, brought together eighty-five individuals from fifty
organizations located in eleven different countries, including ten of the
seventeen founding organizations of the network. A workshop on
research methodologies that followed the conference identified specific
activities for the network to be organized in the coming years.
25
Once established, APRN grew steadily. APRN was involved in the
Peoples Assembly, a parallel summit to the Third Ministerial Conference
of the WTO in Seattle. In 2000, through a grant from a Northern
funding agency, it set up a small secretariat located in the Ibon
Foundation office in Manila. The secretariat is responsible for
communications among network members, development and
maintenance of a website and a listserv, and coordination of the
publication of APRN Journal (Asia Pacific Research Network 2000b,
1).
26
At the end of that year, APRN held its second annual conference
in Jakarta on the theme Poverty and Financing Development attended
by about seventy local participants from Indonesia and another sixty
foreign participants coming from twenty different countries (Asia
Pacific Research Network 2000b, 1).
27
By then, APRN had expanded
its membership to twenty-three organizations based in twelve countries
of the Asia Pacific (Asia Pacific Research Network 2000a, 1).
In the following years, APRN continued to organize its annual
conferences, each co-hosted by at least one APRN member. Its third
annual conference took place in Sydney in September 2001, with the
theme Corporate Power or Peoples Power: TNCs and Globalization
(Asia Pacific Research Network 2001a, 1), and brought together more
than 130 participants.
28
The conference aimed at developing common
perspectives on TNCs across NGOs in the region, creating
complimentary research agendas, agreeing [on] common priorities for
future research and developing shared strategies in contesting TNCs
(Asia Pacific Research Network 2001a, 1). The Fourth Annual
Conference was held in Guangzhou in November 2002 and focused on
the WTO, particularly on the impact of Chinas membership (Asia
Pacific Research Network 2002a, 1).
29
Proposals that emerged of the
conference included a commitment to initiate the formation of a
broad coalition toward the Fifth WTO Ministerial meeting in Cancun
(Asia Pacific Research Network 2002a, 7). In November 2003, against
the backdrop of aggressive US policy, APRN held its Fifth Annual
Conference in Beirut on the theme War on Terrorism in Relation to
Globalization (Asia Pacific Research Network 2003, 3). Organized for
the first time in the Middle East, the annual conference was co-
organized by APRN and the local host organization, the Arab NGO
Network for Development (ANND). The conference aimed at
understanding the growing militarization and its links with globalization,
especially the role of the US and its impact on the people and resistance
movements (Asia Pacific Research Network 2003, 3).
Its sixth annual conference was held in Dhaka from November 25
to 27, 2004, which was hosted by Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni
Gobeshona (Policy Research for Development Alternatives), a long-
standing member of APRN. The theme of the conference was agriculture
and food sovereignty. This time, the conferences organizers sought to
expand its goals from a purely research and academic conference to a
more open and public gathering of research institutions and peoples
organizations (Asia Pacific Research Network 2004b, 1). At the time,
there was a growing number of members that felt that APRN could take
a more advocacy-like role and link the results of their researches to
proposals for public policies and mobilization. As a result, it was
decided to transform the APRN conference into a Peoples Convention
on Food Sovereignty (Asia Pacific Research Network 2004c). Such
convention would then be promoted during the World Food Summit
+10 scheduled for 2006 (Asia Pacific Research Network 2004c, 1).
30
As preparations evolved, the goals of the Peoples Convention expanded
to include preparations for the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the
WTO and other regional/ bilateral agreements and the promotion and
strengthening of local, national and popular movements and initiatives
(Asia Pacific Research Network and Peoples Food Sovereignty Network-
Asia Pacific 2004). The conference, attended by over five hundred
participants from more than thirty countries, resolved to adopt the
Peoples Convention on Food Sovereignty and drafted a Peoples
Statement (Asia Pacific Research Network 2004a).
In 2005, APRN continued to be involved in global and regional
activities.
31
APRN members were involved in the preparation of
various activities parallel to the Sixth WTO Ministerial Meeting in
Hong Kong. In July 2005, with the assistance of the AMRC and the
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) in Hong Kong, it organized
the Policy-Research Conference on Trade to strengthen the advocacy
of civil-society organizations (CSOs) and social movements in relation
to the WTO meeting.
Since its establishment, APRN has gradually expanded its range of
activities. During the Sydney General Council meeting in 2002, APRN
members agreed that APRN would finally embark on coordinated
researches as originally envisioned at the start of the network in Manila
three years ago (Asia Pacific Research Network 2002b).
32
The two
initial coordinated-research projects were Effective Strategies for
Confronting TNCs, coordinated by GATT [General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade]-Watchdog of New Zealand, and Women and
Labour, coordinated by the Center for Womens Resources of the
Philippines.
33
In the past years, APRN members also participated in
the formation of The Reality of Aid Asia project, aimed at monitoring
and documenting international development assistance programs and
projects. Another area that APRN developed through the years is its
training component. In 2001, it organized a capacity-building training
in Bangkok on peoples advocacy policy research
34
and another one
at the end of November 2001, in Bangladesh targeting South Asian
NGOs, and seeking to strengthen advocacy on the WTO Agreement on
Agriculture and TRIPS (Asia Pacific Research Network 2002b, 5; see
also Asia Pacific Research Network ca. 2001c; Asia Pacific Research
Network ca. 2002d).
35
After seven years of existence, APRN has been able to locate itself
as a key research and advocacy network primarily in Southeast Asia,
broadening to other members in the Asia Pacific region (Tujan 2005,
2006). It has expanded its membership from seventeen to thirty-six
member-organizations based in twenty-one different countries. While
contributing to the development of research capacity of NGOs, it has
also become involved in advocacy efforts. During the last WTO
ministerial in Hong Kong, APRN had its own contingent during the
various marches and demonstrations organized, allowing many of its
members to link their advocacy and their research efforts to mobilization
and direct action.
APRNs skill at identifying emerging global issues reflected in its
choice of theme for its annual conferences (WTO, peace, food
sovereignty, transnational corporations, and official development
assistance), and its specific emphasis on research and documentation
is certainly a factor that explains such expansion. As with the three
previous networks, APRNs rapid expansion can be attributed to the
presence of key individuals skilled at network building, animating
processes, and seeking financial assistance. Moreover, the growing
density of international and regional processes (economic integration,
financial liberalization, including the 1997 crisis) and a relatively open
political space in several Asian countries allowing for the organizing of
parallel and critical conferences facilitated the networks expansion in
terms of membership and areas of work. It is also important to outline
that APRN like ARENA expanded by recruiting members and
organizations through joint projects, personal networks, and joint
activities. Today, APRN has several applicants for membership and has
consolidated its internal decision-making processes to ensure an
alternating leadership among its various members.
SUMMARY
The analysis of the four networks reveals interesting commonalities and
some forms of convergence in terms of the growing importance of
producing critical views and alternative proposals to the various
processes associated with globalization, whether it be WTO, APEC,
GMOs, or TRIPs. At the same time, each organization was established
at different historical junctures. ARENA came about in the era of
anti-imperialist struggles marked by resistance movements to
authoritarian governments in the region. TWN, on the other hand,
was set up very much within the logic of non-aligned countries seeking
to provide a Southern perspective to issues. Focus and APRN emerged
in the context of neoliberal globalization and sought to respond to
such process by providing analyses that move away from the tradition
of North-South dichotomy (Focus), or strengthening capacity of
peoples organizations to challenge such form of domination (APRN).
In all four cases, the production of knowledge and analyses that could
transcend national boundaries has been a central feature of their work.
As pointed out by Eduardo Tadem, intellectual activists were well
placed to engage in such process because they
are always looking at interconnections between issues, between countries,
and between regions. And that is part of [their] work whatever discipline
they are in. With the grassroots or purely NGO-type of organizations,
there is a strong tendency for national sectarianism, class sectarianism,
ideological sectarianism. (Tadem 2005; original in Filipino, the authors
translation)
In the coming years, such distinction may become less and less
relevant, as a growing number of social movements involved across the
regions in transnational collective action are themselves engaged in
knowledge production for advocacy and mobilization (Piper and
Uhlin 2004; Loh 2004; Weiss 2004). In that sense, it is not surprising
to see ARENA, Focus, and APRN becoming involved in direct
collective action and social-movement building.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, I examined how and why regional activist networks
engaged in policy advocacy based on critical knowledge production
were established and expanded, becoming one important component
of transnational activism in Southeast Asia. The review of the four cases
has shown that as early as the late 1970s, regional advocacy networks
were being organized. However, as the region was increasingly integrated
into the global economy, there have been a growing number of
initiatives. In fact, the process of economic integration of Southeast
Asian economies within global markets, combined with relative
political liberalization in several countries, provided a specific context
for the development of transnational activist networks with the specific
goal of nurturing and sustaining regional activism through the
production of critical knowledge.
As the analysis showed, Southeast Asian transnational activism
focused around knowledge and discourse production as a response to
domestic and international processes, as well as a result of the growing
awareness among local and national activists across the region that they
are confronted with common challenges and share common targets. In
certain instances, undertaking advocacy and organizing transnational
coalitions is a way of pushing citizens rights that are being blocked
nationally or that cannot be tackled directly within the domestic arena.
In other cases, transnational activism becomes a means to broaden
political pressure globally on common issues affecting citizens, such as
increasing poverty, marginalization of the rural sector, privatization,
trade liberalization, deregulation, militarism, migration policies, and
a decaying environment. Common to the four organizations is the
central place of discourse and knowledge production and its linkages
to mobilization, network building, and constituency building.
Findings from the four cases largely confirm the thesis put forward
by della Porta and Tarrow (2005) that transnational activists are very
seldom working at the supranational level only.
36
Whether it is the
activist intellectuals of ARENA, staff from Focus, TWN affiliates, or
APRN members, they engaged in transnational activism after being
involved in local- and national-level advocacy. Many remain rooted in
their own national struggles, arguing that advocacy and policy
engagement at one level does not deter activism at another level.
Transnational activists are capable of and interested in creating linkages
and coalitions among various types of actors operating on different
levels (local, national, regional, international) in order to respond to
various political contexts, each offering a different range of political
opportunities. As the work of Focus and TWN revealed, specific and
localized concerns are woven together around the theme of resistance
to neoliberal globalization and the need for global social justice (see
Bello 2001). Also, as the history of ARENA reveals, the need for critical
knowledgeknowledge that can be transformed into action and that
can be shared among academics linked to social movementsis seen as
an imperative to challenge authoritarian states or policies deemed
detrimental to the poor.
As Southeast Asia became increasingly integrated in the global
economy and each state linked and affected by global processes,
transnational activism relying on alternative sources of knowledge
became a defining feature of civil-society processes, especially during
and after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Concrete impact and policy
influence of such form of activism takes different forms and is often
difficult to trace in a linear way. At one level, transnational advocacy
efforts produce shared identities and a common understanding of
issues. It also generates common campaigns and proposals that can be
put forward during regional and international gatherings and
implemented both at the regional and national levels. In some cases,
transnational activism can influence the dominant discourse, and
forces its tenants to defend and justify their positions. As the study of
TWN demonstrates, reformist policymakers interested in developing
alternative proposals to the more orthodox neoliberal agenda are
seeking the expertise and knowledge generated by transnational
networks. In other cases, transnational activism can expose the tensions
and divisions that exist between states and economic blocs. Finally, by
connecting community organizations and local NGOs struggles to a
broader set of issues and struggles, transnational activists are able to
amplify and enrich both the work being conducted at the very local
level and the advocacy and policy work conducted regionally and
globally.
This emerging form of activism is not without its own sets of
dilemmas and challenges.
37
Allocation of resources between local,
national, and cross-border activities, democratic decision-making
processes within global networks, oppositional versus propositional
politics, mobilization-driven versus long-term campaigns are all issues
confronting the four transnational networks examined here.
38
Nonetheless, their rapid expansion, their multidimensional activities,
and their capacities to mobilize and provide concrete analysis and
policy proposals for civil-society organizations suggest that knowledge
creation constitutes one specific niche of transnational activism. While
transnational activism seems to stay, its influence on regional and
global economic policies and on regional intergovernmental
organizations remains to be assessed.
39
a
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
An earlier version of this paper was prepared as discussion notes for the
Development and Peace Asia Continental Seminar held in the
Philippines in December 2004 and for a presentation at the Weekly
Colloquium on the Global South organized by the University
Consortium on the Global South (UCGS) at York University in
October 2004. It was first presented at the conference La citoyennet
dans tous ses tats, Institut de Sociologie, Universit libre de
Bruxelles on March 23-25, 2005. I am most grateful to Anna Paskal,
Karen Seabrooke, and Peter Gillespie, all three from Inter Pares;
Frdric Mrand, Pascale Dufour, Jane Jenson, David Meyer, and three
anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and constructive
suggestions. However, all shortcomings and errors are mine only.
NOTES
1. The same authors define activism as political activities that are 1) based on a
conflict of interests and thus are of a contentious nature, 2) challenging or
supporting certain power structures, 3) involving nonstate actors, and 4) taking
place (at least partly) outside formal political arenas (Piper and Uhlin 2002, 4).
Using Thomas Risse-Kappens work, they define transnational as interaction
across state borders involving at least one nonstate actors (5). See also Risse-
Kappen (1995).
2.This was also a key observation of Keck and Sikkink (1998) who described insightfully
the combination of forms of activism.
3. A useful historical treatment of this question can be found in Hopkins (2002) and
Boli and Thomas (1999).
4. See in particular Lindquist (2004). As Piper and Uhlin further explain: Considering
fairly recent and ongoing changes towards democratization in this region, it is not
surprising also to find rising civil-society activism in general and increasing number
of NGOs in particular (2004,19).
5. In her study of six regional regional NGOs based in Hong Kong, Soo-Bok Cheong
proposes a similar argument emphasizing the importance of these two variables,
naming them globalization and industrialization and authoritarianism and
democracy(Six Asian Regional NGOs and the Formation of Social Actor n.d., 1-
5).
6. Reviewing analyses and discourses produced by Focus on the Global South and
Third World Network, Hewison suggests that populism and progressive
nationalism have influenced their analyses hindering the production of an
alternative discourse that can locate the causes of exploitation in capitalist
processes (2001, 233). While this may be debated, the goal of the current article
is to understand the genealogy and emergence of these four transnational networks
and reveal how their analyses created resonance with popular organizations and
social movements within the region.
7. A pioneering work is Piper and Uhlin (2004). Rather than focusing on a specific
type of formation, their emphasis is on thematic organizations.
8. In fact, ARENA defines itself as an interdisciplinary programme for Asian studies
and research cooperation, and a regional network of concerned Asian scholars
academics, intellectuals, activists, researchers, writers, and artistswhich aims to
contribute to a process of awakening toward meaningful and people-oriented
social change (ARENA 2005).
9. In ARENAs view, concerned scholars are individuals capable of conceptualizing,
theorizing, analyzing, interpreting, and articulating issues and concerns as direct
participants of or in support of struggles for social transformation in the interests
of disadvantaged peoples (ARENA 2000, 9).
10. The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) is a regional ecumenical organization
now comprising sixteen National Councils and over one hundred churches/
denominations in the Asia Pacific area. It was first established in 1957 and was
quite active in the 1970s, supporting regional gatherings including regional
meetings of the Rural Youth Programme that helped foster links among those
who eventually formed ARENA (ARENA n.d. [b]).
11. These changes were also supported by the results of the first ARENA evaluation
conducted in the early 1990s.
12. In East Asia (Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan), Southeast Asia
(Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), and South
Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka).
13. See Asian Peace Alliance (2003), Annex 4.
14. As Khor explains: CAP and its charismatic leader, S. M. Mohammed Idris, enabled
me to make the link between the academic world of theory and the real world of
people and their problems. The world of NGOs and involvement in community
issues became so interesting to me that eventually I left the academic world and
joined the NGO movement full time (Khor 2004).
15. A glance at the various TWN annual reports between 1993 and 2003in particular,
its publications and participation at various meetingseasily reveals such
specialization and expertise.
16. In the concept paper that led to its formation, Focus was initially called The
Center for the South.
17. Many others would also use the concept of a Global South afterward. For
example, see Inter Pares (2001).
18. In its 2003-2005 Work Plan, the organization recognized such particular position:
Focus has also traveled considerably from its starting point. It is today widely
considered a key player in the global movement for a different and better world.
Its analyses of global developments are extensively consulted, as are its suggestions
for structural changes (Focus on the Global South ca. 2003, 3).
19. As noted in a 2002 review report by external consultants, four attributes help
understand why Focus has become a key transnational activist network because of
its capacity to create and nurture regional NGO coalitions and social movements:
political radicalism, a clear political position based on power relations; intellectual
leadership, clear and credible analyses; convening power, the ability to bring
people and organizations together; financial resources, the ability to raise funds
and finance the relationship (Banpasirichote, Singh, and Van der Borght 2002,
2).
20. As two evaluators pointed out: We have the impression that Focus has started its
action with a strong focus on the production of ideas and analysis but that today
it is more and more involved in global strategy and activism (Banpasirichote,
Singh, and Van der Borght 2002, 2).
21. As the 2002 evaluation report pointed out: At present, Focus without the current
Executive Director is unthinkable (Banpasirichote, Singh, and Van der Borght
2002, 3).
22. As described in its founding document: The hurriedly organized conference, held
in Jakarta, Indonesia, 19-21 May 2003, was open to all. Those who attended come
from some of the biggest national and regional peace and justice coalitions and
groupings all over the world. These included members of the Asian Peace, the UK
Stop the War Coalition, the US United Peace and Justice, the Italian Social
Forum, and the Istanbul Not to War Coalition (The Jakarta Peace Consensus
2003).
23. This was discussed in interviews with staff of Focus on the Global South in May
2005 in Bangkok and Manila.
24. See also Consumers International-Regional Office Asia-Pacific (1999).
25. These included common and/ or coordinated research projects, training in
research and related technologies, and publications (Asia Pacific Research
Network 1999, 4). Common research areas were government transparency; the
impact of globalization on workers rights and labor migration, the impact of
globalization on food security, and the impact of the GATT-agreement on
agriculture. A third event led by IBON, a training-workshop on documentation
and data banking, was considered particularly useful as participating organizations
suggested afterward that such training be organized on a regular basis.
26. Its first issue came out in December 1999 and comprised papers presented during
the July 1999 Conference.
27. Participants came from a range of organizations: research institutes, NGO,
government, academia, popular organizations, and the media.
28. Like the previous year, APRN secretariat in Manila worked with a local organizing
committee made up of Australian NGOs and trade unions, including AidWatch;
the Public Interest Advocacy Centre; the Mineral Policy Institute; APHEDA
Union Aid Abroad; Friends of the Earth-Australia; Australian Manufacturing
Workers Union; and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
Despite difficulties in traveling and securing visa in the wake of September 11, the
turnout of the conference was only little lower than expected, with 130 participants,
including thirty-five international participants and twenty-three APRN members
(Asia Pacific Research Network 2001a, 3). See also Asia Pacific Research Network
2001d.
29. The conference was organized with the assistance of two organizations: the Asia
Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) and the Ghangzhou All China Federation of
Trade Union (ACFTU). In the end and despite some visa difficulties, a total of
ninety participants joined the conference, including forty foreign participants, of
which twenty-seven were APRN members.
30. The process envisioned by the Peoples Convention was to initiate a process of
adoption of national conventions culminating in a global convention on peoples
food sovereignty presented during the 2006 World Food Summit +10 in 2006
(Asia Pacific Research Network 2004c).
31. Including a policy workshop on regional cooperation and human rights in Asia
held in the Philippines in June 2004, and the co-organizing of the international
conference Bandung in the 21st Century: Continuing the Struggle for
Independence, Peace against Imperialist War and Globalization, held in Bandung,
Indonesia, on April 14-16, 2005.
32. It meant that instead of financing individual researches carried by APRN members,
research would be conducted jointly (Asia Pacific Research Network 2004c, 1).
33. The first one took off the ground in 2002, reviewing the experience of specific
campaigns against TNCs, while the second was delayed because members felt that
it was necessary to organize first a research planning conference (Asia Pacific
Research Network 2002b; 2002c, 3; see also, Asia Pacific Research Network
2003).
34. The purpose of the training was to familiarize the participants with basic concepts
of participatory research; provide skills in research design and methods of policy
research; provide framework guidance on policy analysis; and familiarize on
process of effective practical application of policy research(Asia Pacific Research
Network 2002b, 4).
35. This training was the third of the same kind, each focusing on the WTO and
Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), the first two having been held in Malaysia in
2000 and Indonesia in 2001.
36. This is also a key observation made by Keck and Sikkink (1998) who describe
insightfully the combination of forms of activism.
37. In their recent book on transnational coalitions, Joe Bandy and Jackie Smith
(2005, 231-52) propose a list of factors that can generate tension and cooperation.
38. Academics such as Kevin Hewison (2001, 233) also questioned their analyses, in
particular those of TWN and Focus on the Global South, seeing those as populist
and somehow simplistic.
39. Recent works of Jonathan Fox (2002) and Fox and Brown (1998) can provide a
useful starting point; see as well Clark (2003).
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_________________
DOMINIQUE CAOUETTE is assistant professor at the Dpartement de science politique,
Uni versi t de Montral, Canada. Send correspondence to the author at
Dominique.caouette@umontreal.ca.

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